Oh Japan

Oh Japan indeed! In the first week of July I took a spontaneous trip to Japan. When I say spontaneous I mean that it was less than 24 hours from deciding ‘hey, let’s go to Japan!’, booking tickets and driving to Sydney at 2am to catch the flight! It was a blur but oh so rewarding. For reasons unbeknownst to me I have waited nearly four weeks to share this and some of the images from the trip.

We flew from Sydney into Narita, Tokyo and spent the first 3 nights in different districts of Tokyo – Asakusa, Ginza and Shinjuku before taking the bullet train to Kyoto and spending time in and around Arashiyama and the city of Kyoto. I have long had a fascination with Japan, the culture, food and design all have special places in my heart. Also the idea of being immersed in a place that is so foreign to my own. Oh and I love neon lights and the cities did not disappoint 😉

I took loads of pictures, some of which are presented below and some which will be posted in future posts. Those of you with whom I communicate regularly will know I have been in somewhat of a creative doldrums of late … personally I blame winter(!) but there are deeper reasons than things seasonal. I’m bringing you some pictures today from in and around Arashiyama, a smallish city northeast of Kytoto.

This first picture was taken at Arashiyama Station at sunset as we arrived back from a day in Kyoto.

This next picture was the view from the balcony of the traditional Japanese-style place we stayed in in Arashiyama … sunsets eh? The place was amazing and we had shared some very special moments here.

Arashiyama is famous for, amongst many other things, it’s giant bamboo groves. This place, like so many others in Japan was bristling with people but there weren’t so many in the frame when you turned your gaze upwards 😉

There’s a river (the Hozu-gawa River) that’s simply beautiful with long boats used for cormorant fishing and of course ferrying visitors around.

Anyways I hope you’ve enjoyed this little photo tour of this part of Japan… I’m currently working out how I can get back there 🙂

I’ll be posting more pictures over the next little while (now that I appear to have released myself from my writer’s block!) so please stay tuned 🙂

Have you been to this part of the world? Did you like it? Have you never been but always wanted to go? Do tell me in the comments below 🙂